Pressure-induced phase transition of nanocrystalline zinc sulfide

In situ energy dispersive X-ray diffraction measurements on nanocrystalline zinc sulfide have been performed by using diamond anvil cell with synchrotron radiation. There is a phase transition which the ultimate structure is rocksalt when the pressure is up to 16.0GPa. Comparing the structure of body materials, the pressure of the phase transition of nano zinc sulfide is high. We fit the: Birch-Murnaghan equation of state and obtained its ambient pressure bulk modulus and its pressure derivative. The bulk modulus of nanocrystalline zinc sulfide is higher than that of body materials, it indicate that the rigidity of nanocrystalline zinc sulfide is high.

Impact of polarization on quasi-two-dimensional exciton and barrier-width dependence of the exciton associated transition in wurtzite III-V nitride quantum wells

Excitonic states in AlxGa1-xN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) are studied within the framework of effective-mass theory. Spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations are included and their impact on the excitonic states and optical properties are studied. We witnessed a significant blue shift in transition energy when the barrier width decreases and we attributed this to the redistribution of the built-in electric field between well layers and barrier layers. For the exciton the binding energies, we found in narrow QWs that there exists a critical value for barrier width, which demarcates the borderline for quantum confinement effect and the quantum confined Stark effect. Exciton and free carrier radiative lifetimes are estimated by simple argumentation. The calculated results suggest that there are efficient non-radiative mechanisms in narrow barrier QWs. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of the temperature-induced transition to current self-oscillations in doped GaAs/AlAs superlattices

We observed the decrease of the hysteresis effect and the transition from the stable to the dynamic domain regime in doped superlattices with increasing temperature. The current-voltage characteristics and the behaviours of the domain boundary are dominated by the temperature-dependent lineshape of the electric field dependence of the drift velocity (V(F)), As the peak-valley ratio in the V(F) curve decreases with increasing temperature, the hysteresis will diminish and temporal current self-oscillations will occur. The simulated calculation, which takes the difference in V(F) curves into consideration, gives a good agreement with the experimental results.

The transition from Eu3+ to Eu2+ in SiO2(Eu) thin films prepared by ion implantation and co-sputtering

Eu ions doped SiO2 thin films, SiO2( Eu), were prepared by co-sputtering of SiO2 and Eu2O3 and Eu ion implantation into thermally grown SiO2 films. The Eu-L-3-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra of SiO2(Eu) films show a doublet absorption peak structure with energy difference of 7 eV, which indicates the conversion of Eu3+ to Eu2+ at high annealing temperature in N-2. The strong blue luminescence of SiO2(Eu) films prepared by ions implantation after films annealed above 1100 degreesC confirms the above argument.

Type I-type II transition of self-assembled In0.55Al0.45As/Al0.5Ga0.5As quantum dots

The photoluminescence (PL) of In0.55Al0.45As/Al0.5Ga0.5As self-assembled quantum dots has been measured at 15 and 80 K under hydrostatic pressure. The lateral size of the dots ranges from 7 to 62 nm. The emissions from the dots with 26, 52 and 62 nm size have a blue shift under pressure, indicating that these quantum dots have the normal type-I structure with lowest conduction band at the Gamma -valley. However, the PL peak of dots with 7 nm diameter moves to lower energy with increasing pressure. It is a typical character for the X-related transition. Then these small dots have a type-II structure with the X-valley as the lowest conduction level. An envelope-function calculation confirms that the Gamma -like exciton transition energy will rise above the X-like transition energy in the In0.55Al0.45As/Al0.5Ga0.5As structure if the dot size is small enough.

Quantum-confinement-effect-driven type-I-type-II transition in inhomogeneous quantum dot structures

We investigate the electronic structures of the inhomogeneous quantum dots within the framework of the effective mass theory. The results show that the energies of electron and hole states depend sensitively on the relative magnitude 77 of the core radius to the capped quantum dot radius. The spatial distribution of the electrons and holes vary significantly when the ratio eta changes. A quantum-confinement-driven type-II-type-I transition is found in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs-capped quantum dot structures. The phase diagram is obtained for different capped quantum dot radii. The ground-state exciton binding energy shows a highly nonlinear dependence on the innner structures of inhomogeneous quantum dots, which originates from the redistribution of the electron and hole wave functions.

Dynamic dc voltage band observed within each current branch in the transition from static to dynamic electric-field domain formation in a doped GaAs/AlAs superlattice

A dynamic dc voltage band was found emerging from each sawtooth-like branch of the current-voltage characteristics of a doped GaAs/AlAs superlattice in the transition process from static to dynamic electric-field domain formation caused by increasing the sample temperature. As the temperature increases, these dynamic dc voltage bands expand within each sawtooth-like branch, squeeze out the static regions, and join up together to turn the whole plateau into dynamic electric-field domain formation. These results are well explained by a general analysis of stability of the sequential tunneling current in superlattices. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)04443-5].

Negative differential resistance and the transition to current self-oscillation in GaAs/AlAs superlattices

We investigate the transition from static to dynamic electric field domains (EFDs) in a doped GaAs/AlAs superlattice (SL). We show that a transverse magnetic field and/or the temperature can induce current self-oscillations. This observation can be attributed to the negative differential resistance (NDR) effect. Transverse magnetic field and the temperature can increase the NDR of a doped SL. A large NDR can lead to an unstable EFD in a certain range of d.c. bias. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.